Fight Facts: KSW 2023, a Year in Review

KSW rocked Central Europe all year with a dozen shows, including one massive one in Poland’s capital city. Exceeding 100 fights with its various spectacles, wild results took place throughout 2023. This past year, KSW very nearly had history on its hands with a three-division champion. Still, it did put forth a heavyweight king with more defenses than any other ruling that weight in a major league, as well as a unique, must-see knockout from a former boxer.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW FIGHTS IN 2023: 112
TOTAL NUMBER OF KSW EVENTS IN 2023: 12
Knockouts: 22
Technical Knockouts: 28
Submissions: 19
Decisions: 42
Draws: 1
No Contests: 1

Onward to France: The organization ran strong in 2023, staging 12 events and a record number of bouts (112) across Poland and the Czech Republic. Twelve fight cards in a year remain high for KSW.

Colosseum 2: Electric Boogaloo: Looking to replicate the success of KSW 39 in 2017, the promotion staged KSW 83 in the same building of the PGE Narodowy stadium in Warsaw, Poland. An estimated 50,000 fans attended the show, making it one of 14 in MMA history to have that many in attendance.

Always Made It Count: Of the 12 events, 11 featured a belt on the line in the headliner, concluded with a post-fight bonus-winning performance, or both.

A Heavyweight Among Heavyweights: At KSW 79 in February, heavyweight king Philip De Fries dismantled Todd Duffee. In July at KSW 84, the British champ slept Szymon Bajor. His nine consecutive defenses are far and away the most of any heavyweight champion across all major promotions.

A Frank Shamrock-Esque Move: In January 2022, Ibragim Chuzhigaev challenged longtime light heavyweight champ Tomasz Narkun and upset him to claim the throne. The Turkish fighter defended against Ivan Erslan that December and then again against Bogdan Gnidko in August. After that defense, Chuzhigaev left the organization and surrendered his belt.

Almost Triple C: Featherweight and lightweight champ Salahdine Parnasse—who assumed the undisputed lightweight crown when champion Marian Ziolkowski pulled out of their match on fight night—attempted to become the first fighter in a major organization to win belts in three divisions. At KSW 89, Parnasse went up to 170 pounds but fell short against Adrian Bartosinski.

Technically Correct: Atop KSW 86, Jakub Wiklacz put his belt on the line against former champ Sebastian Przybysz. Due to an illegal soccer kick in Round 4, the bout went to the judges. As a result, the technical decision was scored as a unanimous draw, the first such result in a major promotion.

Cut the Belt in Half: The draw in a title fight marked just the second time this had happened with KSW. In the league’s third-ever championship bout, Mamed Khalidov and Ryuta Sakurai fought to a draw that included an extra three-minute fourth stanza.

Judges Got Bored: The first eight championship matches in 2023 for KSW ended inside the distance. This included two Round 5 stoppages for Robert Ruchala and Pawel Pawlak, accounting for half of the finishes in the fifth round in company history.

Good Soccer Kick, Bad Soccer Kick: To keep a firm grip on his featherweight strap, Parnasse blasted Ruchala with a soccer kick to the midsection to conclude their unification match. His victory is the first in KSW via soccer kick.

He Actually Did It Again: Mamed Khalidov notched the second knockout by flying switch kick in KSW history when he put Scott Askham away at KSW 83. The first was performed by Khalidov against Askham three years prior.

Still Got Some Magic: Michal Materla’s two wins in the KSW cage this year came via knockout as he dispatched Kendall Grove and Radoslaw Paczuski. “Magic Michal” tied former foe Mariusz Pudzianowski with the most in promotional history as both celebrate 12 knockouts on their KSW ledgers.

Barreling Towards KSW 93: Wilson Varela completed a banner year as the lone fighter to win three times in the KSW cage by demolishing Sebastian Rajewski with a body kick in 16 seconds. His knockout was the fastest of the year while tied as the fourth-quickest overall.

The Impossible Made Possible: Krzysztof Glowacki performed the unthinkable by knocking Patryk Tolkaczewski out cold off his back at KSW 83. Tolkaczewski had taken the full mount position, and Glowacki sniped him with a sleep-inducing left hand. Glowacki’s win instantly emerged as a “Knockout of the Year” contender, doing something not seen in major MMA leagues.

How Heavyweight of You: Electing to crush down on Bogdan Stoica’s neck with his forearm instead of setting up another kind of choke, Arkadiusz Wrzosek forced Stoia to tap at KSW 83. His was just the second forearm choke in KSW, with the first from Przemyslaw Saleta at KSW 14 in 2010.

Two for One: At KSW 87, Oleksii Polishchuk combined two maneuvers into one to force Filip Macek to submit to a triangle armbar. He joins Damian Piwowarczyk and Donovan Desmae as the only three to land this move in the KSW cage.

Sleeping on the Job: Sofiia Bagishvili, Bajor and Islam Djabrailov decided against tapping and went to sleep via choke. The three technical submissions recorded in the KSW cage in 2023 are the most in a single year for the company.

Broken Piggy Banks: KSW typically awards one post-fight bonus for “Fight of the Night,” another for “Knockout of the Night,” and a third for “Submission of the Night” as long as the latter two had that type of result on the card. The company deviated from that slightly at KSWs 80, 81 and 87, doling out an extra bonus for thrilling results.

Regional Legend: When Khalidov put Askham down for the count with his switch kick, he claimed a KOTN bonus for his handiwork. This established him one shy of the top spot as the winningest fighter in KSW history but did put him in the No. 1 position for the most bonuses won by a KSW fighter.

30 for 30 of Sorts: Materla competed thrice in 2023, and his victory at KSW 83 was his 22nd with the promotion—the most all-time. At KSW 89 in December, he failed to win back his middleweight strap against Pawlak, but he did make his 30th KSW appearance. He is the lone competitor to reach that many bouts with the company.

Bring in a New Challenger: Eight fights closed with one favorite at -500 or higher—De Fries saw this happen twice this year—and all eight at minus money won. Favored the highest of them all at -900, Ramzan Jembiev easily tapped Fabian Luczak at KSW 88.

Expect the Expected: Significant betting upsets were relatively hard to come by for KSW this year. The largest came when Daniel Tarchila at +310 won a decision over -400 Wojciech Kazieczko at KSW 80. Only seven underdogs at +200 or higher pulled off wins.

Tangible Advantage: Two fighters missed weight for standard bouts this year, with Sandra Succar tipping the scales above the flyweight limit while Jembiev botched his weight cut to featherweight. Both competitors ended up winning by stoppage the next day.

Biffed It: In one of the largest weight misses in company history, Jembiev clocked in at 155 pounds for his 145-pound affair. As a result, the promotion scuttled his fight with Danu Tarchila. Tarchila faced Vladyslav Falbiychuk, while Jembiev took on Luczak, and both won by first-round rear-naked choke.

Kind of Sort Of: Ahmed Abdulkadirov took a catchweight match against Sahil Siraj at KSW 87, with their decided weight at 159 pounds. If there was no one-pound allowance, Abdulkadirov officially missed weight, checking in at 160 pounds flat. He also got knocked out.

Bonk: The lone no-contest of the year came when Patryk Chrobak and Milosz Melchert clacked heads at KSW 84. This happened once in the past for KSW a decade ago, when Anzor Azhiev and Artur Sowinski did the same at KSW 24.